Plant pathogens are known to cause considerable damage to important crops, resulting in significant agricultural losses with widespread consequences for both the food supply and other industries that rely on plant materials. As such, there is a long felt need to reduce the incidence and/or impact of agricultural pests on crop production.
Several pathogens have been associated with damage to soybeans, which individually and collectively have the potential to cause significant yield losses in the United States and throughout the world. Exemplary such pathogens include, but are not limited to fungi (e.g., genus Phytophthora), nematodes (e.g., genus Meloidogyne, particularly, Meloidogyne javanica), and insects (e.g., aphids). Given the significant threat to food supplies that these pathogens present and the time and expense associated with treating soybean crops to prevent loss, new methods for producing pathogen resistant soybean cultivars are needed.